he adds;—“This of course must be by direct legislation.  We may shrink from it,” he continues, “but in my judgment it is now inevitable.  The very appointment of the Commission seems to involve it, and the general temper of the country will demand it.” [6]  If the Bishop’s witness is that the mere appointment of the Commission seems to involve a legislative measure touching the Prayer Book, how much more does its Report—leading even such a man as the Bishop on to advocate it—shew that here is more than a threatening of assault upon it!

Perhaps we shall have something by and by to add upon the views and recommendations of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol’s Charge.  At present I merely cite this passage as an evidence that the appointment and work of the Royal Commission tend directly to an alteration in the Book of Common Prayer, because such an enactment as is here contemplated would be, I must venture to affirm, whatever his lordship may suppose, a repeal of the Rubric on Ornaments as it stands, and has stood since the last revision.  To this, however, I shall have occasion to refer again in the sequel.

But now let us turn for a little while to the Report itself, as issued by the Commissioners on the nineteenth of August, 1867.  After reciting the matters for enquiry contained in their appointment, the Commissioners say:—“We, your Majesty’s Commissioners, have, in accordance with the terms of your Majesty’s Commission, directed our first attention to the question of the vestments worn by the ministers of the said United Church at the time of their ministration, and especially to those the use of which has been lately introduced into certain churches.”  They proceed:—“We find that whilst these vestments are regarded by some witnesses as symbolical of doctrine, and by others as a distinctive vesture whereby they desire to do honour to the Holy Communion as the highest act of Christian worship, they are by none regarded as essential, and they give grave offence to many.”

From this premiss they arrive at the following conclusion:—“We are of opinion that it is expedient to restrain in the public Services of the United Church of England and Ireland all variations in respect of vesture from that which has long been the established usage of the said United Church; and we think that this may be best secured by providing Aggrieved Parishioners with an easy and effectual process for complaint and redress.”  They then state that they have not yet arrived at a conclusion how best effect may be given to this recommendation, but they have (they say [7]) “deemed it to be their duty in a matter to which great interest is attached not to delay the communication to her Majesty of the results at which they have already arrived.”

Now from this, which is the whole substance of the Report, it is evident that the conclusions of the Commissioners are wholly based upon the ground that the vestments are “by none regarded as essential,” whilst “they give grave offence to many.”  And of course the stress of the argument, such as it is, rests upon their being admitted to be non-essential; because, if they were essential, the consideration of their giving grave offence to however many would be no reason at all for restraint in the matter.  A thousand things give offence to a world lying in wickedness which are only all the more to be proclaimed and declared on that account.  The “offence of the Cross” has not “ceased” now any more than it had in S. Paul’s day.  It is well known and widely spread, but this affords no reason for restraining the preaching of the Cross.

But it may be said, admitting all this, yet as these vestments are confessed to be unessential, the conclusion is very sound that their use should be restrained; and, in fact, a great deal has been made on all hands amongst the advocates of restraint of this the solitary argument of the Commissioners.  There is often a sort of triumphant appeal:—“The Ritualists themselves admit the vestments to be non-essential.  What can be the hardship or evil of compelling them to give them up?”

Let us examine this view a little more closely, and see whether there be not a lurking fallacy running through the whole argument.

In the first place, more than one of the witnesses has repudiated the admission of the non-essentiality of these things; and even granting that the term may have been used, it is a further question in what application or connection.  Essential is a relative term, depending as to its sense on the context in which it occurs, or the subject matter upon which it bears.  It needs, therefore, in each case to be asked, Essential to what?  To the being or to the well-being?  There is here a great and important difference.  It is quite true that no one maintains that the vestments are essential to the office of the priesthood, or to the validity of any priestly act.  But they may be essential to the giving due expression to the act; and to give this due expression may be essential to the salvation of many.  Or yet further, the thing itself may be unessential as to the validity of acts done, and yet the liberty to use it may be of essential importance—aye, even though it may give grave offence to some, perhaps to many.

An illustration may possibly help us to estimate the true value of the Commissioners’ argument, or, as I should rather say, their sophism.  And it seems very important to shew that it is a sophism, because the paragraph in question in their Report is the one thing reiterated over and over again by the advocates of legislation or repression.  It is the stock argument, the only argument on which the demand for change is based; and it is often urged as if it were irresistible, and there were no reply to it.  Let us, then, examine it, and try to see its true force.

Now there is, as it seems to me, a very apt illustration of its fallacy in a matter of ceremonial treated of in the 30th Canon, and a matter, too, be it observed, where the ceremonial referred to, and defended, was certainly not an essential of Christianity, and as certainly, at the time, gave grave offence to many.

The 30th Canon, by far the longest and most elaborate of the Canons of 1603, treats of “the lawful use of the Cross in Baptism.”  The grave offence taken at this usage is declared in the very first words of the Canon—“We are sorry that his Majesty’s most princely care and pains taken in the Conference at Hampton Court, amongst many other points touching this one of the Cross in Baptism, hath taken no better effect with many, but that the use of it in Baptism is so gravely stuck at and impugned.”  And then the Canon, instead of upon this account recommending that the use be restrained, or that persons aggrieved (“Aggrieved Parishioners”) should have provided for them “an easy and effectual process for complaint and redress” instead of this, the Canon goes on to give various godly reasons why the usage should be retained, even though it gave this grave offence—aye, and though the cause of the offence was its being supposed to have a savour of Rome, and though it was a matter in itself indifferent.  Without reciting the whole Canon we may remark that the reasons stated are exactly such as,